Harrods

In 1824, at the age of 25, Charles Henry Harrod established a business at 228 Borough High Street in Southwark. He ran this business, variously listed as a draper, mercer, and a haberdasher, until at least 1831.^[7][8][9] During 1825, the business was listed as 'Harrod and Wicking, Linen Drapers, Retail',^[10] but this partnership was dissolved at the end of that year.^[11] His first grocery business appears to be as 'Harrod & Co. Grocers' at 163 Upper Whitecross Street, Clerkenwell, E.C.1., in 1832.^[12]

In 1834, in London's East End, he established a wholesale grocery in Stepney at 4 Cable Street with a special interest in tea.^[13] Attempting to capitalise on trade during the Great Exhibition of 1851 in nearby Hyde Park, in 1849 Harrod took over a small shop in the district of Brompton, on the site of the current store.^[14] Beginning in a single room employing two assistants and a messenger boy, Harrod's son Charles Digby Harrod built the business into a thriving retail operation selling medicines, perfumes, stationery, fruits and vegetables.^[15] Harrods rapidly expanded, acquired the adjoining buildings, and employed one hundred people by 1881.^[16]

However, the store's booming fortunes were reversed in early December 1883, when it burnt to the ground. Remarkably, Charles Harrod fulfilled all of his commitments to his customers to make Christmas deliveries that year—and made a record profit in the process. In short order, a new building was built on the same site, and soon Harrods extended credit for the first time to its best customers, among them Oscar Wilde, Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry, Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Sigmund Freud, A. A. Milne, and many members of the British Royal Family.^[17][18] Beatrix Potter frequented the store from the age of 17. First published in 1902, her children's book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was soon on sale in Harrods, accompanied by the world's first licensed character, a Peter Rabbit soft toy (Peter and toys of other Potter characters appeared in Harrods catalogues from 1910).^[19][20] In 1921, Milne bought the 18-inch Alpha Farnell teddy bear from the store for his son Christopher Robin Milne who would name it Edward, then Winnie, becoming the basis for Winnie-the-Pooh.^[18] In December 1926, Agatha Christie, who visited Harrods as a girl, marvelled at the spectacle of the store's Christmas display.^[21] The store has also featured in fiction, for example Mr. Bean (played by Rowan Atkinson) visited Harrods to buy Christmas decorations in the 1992 Mr. Bean episode "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean".^[22]

On 16 November 1898, Harrods debuted England's first "moving staircase" (escalator) in their Brompton Road stores; the device was actually a woven leather conveyor belt-like unit with a mahogany and "silver plate-glass" balustrade.^[23] Nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal'.

The store was a founding member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1928 until 1935; its then-president, Franck Chitham, was also president of the association in 1930.

Mah-Jongg, a lemur, was sold to Stephen Courtauld and Virginia Courtauld (née Peirano) in 1923. Mah-Jongg lived with the Courtaulds for fifteen years, accompanying the couple on their travels and changes of residence, including Eltham Palace in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.^[16] In 1969, Christian the lion was bought at Harrods by John Rendall and Anthony 'Ace' Bourke. The lion was set free in Kenya after reaching maturity.

The Disney at Harrods partnership added the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique salon on 25 November 2013 to the previously operating Disney Cafe and Disney Store.^[24]

The store occupies a 5-acre (20,000 m²) site and has over one million square feet (90,000 m²) of selling space in over 330 departments making it the biggest department store in Europe. The UK's second-biggest shop, Selfridges, Oxford Street, is a little over half the size with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m²) of selling space.^[25] By comparison Europe's second-largest department store the KaDeWe in Berlin has a retail space of 650,000 square feet (60,000 m²).

The figurative sculptures that once adorned the Harrods food hall were consigned for sale at West Middlesex Auction Rooms in 2012. The two Mermaids supporting a giant Clam and the Stag and Boar sheltering under an English Oak are purchased by Greaves & Thomas for inclusion in an elaborate fountain for Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Memorials

Following the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, Mohamed Al-Fayed's son, two memorials to the couple commissioned by Al-Fayed were erected inside Harrods. The first, located at the base of the Egyptian Escalator, was unveiled on 12 April 1998, consisting of photographs of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner as well as what is described as an engagement ring Dodi purchased the day before they died.^[26]

The second memorial, unveiled in 2005 and located by the escalator at door three is entitled Innocent Victims, a bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross, a bird said to symbolise the "Holy Spirit".^[27] The sculpture was created by William Mitchell, a close friend of Al-Fayed and artistic design advisor to Harrods for 40 years. Al-Fayed said he wanted to keep the pair's "spirit alive" through the statue.^[28]

The shop's 330 departments offer a wide range of products and services. Products on offer include clothing for women, men, children and infants, electronics, jewellery, sporting gear, bridal trousseau, pet accessories, toys (including Christmas and signature teddy bears),^[29] food and drink, health and beauty items, packaged gifts, stationery, housewares, home appliances, furniture, and much more.

A representative sample of shop services includes 23 restaurants, serving everything from high tea to tapas to pub food to haute cuisine; a personal shopping-assistance programme known as "By Appointment"; a watch repair service; a tailor; a dispensing pharmacy; a beauty spa and salon; a barbers shop; Ella Jade Bathroom Planning and Design Service; private events planning and catering; food delivery; a wine steward; bespoke picnic hampers and gift boxes; bespoke cakes; bespoke fragrance formulations; and Bespoke Arcades^[30] machines.

Up to 300,000 customers visit the shop on peak days, comprising the highest proportion of customers from non-English speaking countries of any department store in London. More than five thousand staff from over fifty different countries work at Harrods.

In October 2009, Harrods Bank started selling gold bars and coins that customers could buy "off the shelf". The gold products ranged from 1 g to 12.5 kg, and could be purchased within Harrods Bank. They also offered storage services, as well as the ability to sell back gold to Harrods in the future.

Harrods used to provide paid "luggage room" services for storing luggage/ items; however, post COVID they stopped providing this service.^[31]

A chance meeting in London with businessman, Edgar Cohen, eventually led to Charles Harrod selling his interest in the store for £120,000 (equivalent to £16,753,448 in 2023) via a stock market flotation in 1889. The new company was called Harrod's Stores Limited. Sir Alfred James Newton became chairman and Richard Burbidge managing director. Financier William Mendel was appointed to the board in 1891 and he raised funding for many of the business expansion plans. Richard Burbidge was succeeded in 1917 by his son Woodman Burbidge and he in turn by his son Richard in 1935.^[45]

The department store was acquired by House of Fraser in 1959, fighting off competition from Debenhams and United Drapery Stores. The business was in turn was purchased by the Fayed brothers in 1985 for £615 million.^[37] In 1994, Harrods was moved out of the House of Fraser Group to remain a private company prior to the group's relisting on the London Stock Exchange. Omar Fayed, Mohamed's youngest son, joined the Harrods board in 2006.^[46]

Following denial that it was for sale, Harrods was sold to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar for £1.5 billion in May 2010.^[37] A fortnight previously, chairman of Harrods since 1985, Mohamed Al-Fayed, had stated that "People approach us from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Fair enough. But I put two fingers up to them. It is not for sale. This is not Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury's. It is a special place that gives people pleasure. There is only one Mecca."^[47]

The sale was concluded in the early hours of 8 May, when Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani came to London to finalise the deal, saying that the acquisition of Harrods would add "much value" to the investment portfolio of Qatar Holdings while his deputy, Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla, called it a "landmark transaction".^[37] A spokesman for Mohamed Al-Fayed said "in reaching the decision to retire, [Fayed] wished to ensure that the legacy and traditions that he has built up in Harrods would be continued."^[37]

Al-Fayed later revealed in an interview that he decided to sell Harrods following the difficulty in getting his dividend approved by the trustees of the Harrods pension fund. Al-Fayed said "I'm here every day, I can't take my profit because I have to take a permission of those bloody idiots. I say is this right? Is this logic? Somebody like me? I run a business and I need to take the trustee's permission to take my profit."^[48] Al-Fayed was appointed honorary chairman of Harrods, a position he held for six months.^[48]

• 1983: A terrorist attack by the Provisional IRA outside the Brompton store kills six people.
• 1993: An IRA terrorist attack injures four people.

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  Share of the Harrod's Stores Ltd., issued 7 August 1903
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  Back of a share from 1903
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  Fashion plate of 1909 showing Londoners walking in front of Harrods
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  The Harrods building frontage at night
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  Harrods Furniture Depository in Barnes, London
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  Gentlemen's lavatory in Harrods

• Fortnum & Mason
• Jenners, known as the "Harrods of the North"